Talk:animal

U.S./American usage of 'animal' meaning 4 legged fauna. i.e. phrases like "birds, fish, and animals"??

Humans
"Evolutionary biologists say humans are also animals." Just evolutionary biologists? I was under the impression that under this scientific definition, every living thing was either a plant or an animal. We are not plants. We eat things, we have cells, and there is no biological difference between us and "other" animals. Under this BIOLOGICAL definition, I don't think there's any question of whether we are animals. (We're not plants, or silicon based, etc)

num. 2 already covers non-scientific usage, IE all living things which aren't plants, except humans.

EDIT: I just changed the sentence to something more accurate:

"Humans are also animals, under the scientific definition, as we are not plants."

This fits with the previous sentence as well. I'll keep this as an explaination. 74.14.122.167 23:05, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

Political animal
I think this is a specific expression, from Aristotle I think, not a general use of the word "animal." Redddogg 03:55, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Definition
The current scientific definition is in no way rigorous enough to satisfy a scientist.This definition would allow slime molds (motile fungi) and Venus flytraps (a plant that 'moves' and 'eats other organisms') to be 'animals.' I would simply write: 'animal: a monophyletic kingdom of multicellular heterotrophic eukaryote with internal digestion. That is, animals are all descended from a common ancestor. They are organisms composed of many individual cells with distinct nuclei and membrane-bound organelles. They obtain nutrition solely by ingesting organic matter and then breaking it down.'

Movement is no kind of animal criterion. When was the last time a coral or barnacle moved? If you want to say that movement only has to apply to parts of the organism, then the Venus flytrap certainly moves, and even a tree moves when the wind blows. Dhicks3 17:30, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

Mistake in French
There's a mistake in the French section. The plural of animal is animaux and not animaaux. I don't know how to change it. 24.48.117.59 02:28, 25 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Fixed. Thanks. — Ungoliant (falai) 02:46, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

Citation for Portuguese
Would you mind adding a citation to at least one of the Portuguese senses, preferably one of the slangy or colloquial senses? ←₰-→ Lingo Bingo Dingo (talk)  11:58, 24 September 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅ — Ungoliant (falai) 01:36, 25 September 2020 (UTC)